SNP MP Pete Wishart battles to overturn exclusion

AN SNP MP has launched a bid to get himself elected to an influential parliamentary committee, in defiance of a ruling from the Commons authorities.

Perth and Perthshire North MP Pete Wishart is attempting to get elected to a newly created back-bench committee, set up to help wrest power back from the leaderships of the main parties in the Commons.

However, Speaker John Bercow announced that the committee would be made up of five Tories, four Labour MPs and one Liberal Democrat.

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It meant the smaller parties – such as the Scottish and Welsh nationalists and the Northern Irish parties, as well as Green MP Caroline Lucas – were excluded.

When Mr Wishart challenged the Speaker on the issue, he was told any alteration to the membership would require a change in standing orders, the rules that govern parliament.

Mr Bercow said he was "not unsympathetic" but insisted that it was a matter for the House.

However, The Scotsman has learned that Mr Wishart has now launched a campaign to get himself elected and has already attracted backing from some MPs from the main parties, who have described the exclusion of minor party representation as "outrageous".

Negotiations for the committees on Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish affairs, where the rules mean none of the small, regionally based parties can have a seat, are ongoing.

The current rules mean that the Scottish affairs committee would have five English Tories and no SNP membership.